March 15, 2007

Argentina Can't Quite Be Replicated in My Kitchen

A while back I mentioned in a post that if someone suggesting a recipe for me to make, I’d probably do it.The only person to put something out there was Marce of Pip in the City. She blogs from Argentina and suggested that I make alfajores and dulce de leche, both Argentinean specialties.Marce had recently madethese on her blog so I went to find out what they were.What I learned was that alfajores are sweets made by joining two cookie-like layers with a sweet filling such as dulce de leche.Sounds good to me.The only sticking point, (pun intended, I’m sooo funny) was the dulce de leche.I had never made it before because I thought the experience would be something like making caramel, ie- a disaster.But I never refuse a challenge, so I was going to give it a try anyways.To begin with I had to boil whole milk, reduce the heat and skim off the skin, and then repeat this process three more times.You know what they say, a watched pot never boils, so I busied myself about the kitchen.I was in the process of washing grapes when one of them jumped out of my hand and rolled away.I stopped what I was doing, stood still and scanned the kitchen floor for the missing grape.I knew if I didn’t find him immediately, I would end up squishing him at a most inopportune time, (um, I guess no matter when I stepped on him it would be inopportune).

Where on earth did it go?I got down on my hands and knees to search for the escapee and found him hiding under the stove.Not only was he under the stove, but he’d gotten himself far enough back that I couldn’t reach him without some help.A wooden spoon was perfect for the job.As I lay flat out on the kitchen floor, trying to scoot a grape out from under the stove with my spoon, I suddenly heard an unfortunately familiar sound: The sound of milk bubbling up over the top of the pot and scorching on the stovetop.This sound is quickly followed by the smell of scorched milk.Blech.With a flick of my wrist I hit the grape with the back end of the spoon, jumped to my feet and tried to salvage my bubbling cauldron of death.Er, dulce de leche.And where did that grape go again?As I mopped the milk off the stove I quickly discovered the answer to that question.Squish.Under my foot.Well isn’t that just fantastic?One more thing to clean up.With that mess out of the way I continued with the dulce de leche recipe.It was supposed to stay on the stove for a total of 3 ½ hours, after 2 ½ hours the sauce was really dark, quite flavourful and rapidly disappearing.I felt that if I left it any longer there would be nothing left.So I poured it into a jar and began to make the cookies.

I wasn’t too sure about them either after reading the recipe, it had more cornstarch in it than any other recipe I’ve ever made.They also sounded suspiciously like a shortbread cookie and I’m not a huge fan of shortbread cookies.However, as I read further into the recipe, one of the ingredients piqued my interest: Armagnac.Fantastic, another way to use my new favourite alcohol!These cookies were starting to look up!And they were a whole lot easier to make than the dulce de leche, no boiling milk and no squished grapes involved.

Once the cookies were cool, I went to the fridge to retrieve the dulce de leche.I open the jar only to find that it had not thickened at all and was very much a syrup.I then returned to Marce’s blog where she informed me that if I was making alfajores it was better to use store bought dulce de leche because the homemade stuff would be too thin.Hmph.My homemade version was delicious, but thin.Perfect over ice cream, but thin.And so, despite the fact that Marce herself had told me that the dulce de leche would be thin, I was convinced that it would thicken up if I just gave it some time.I put it in the fridge and left it there overnight.Come morning it was still a syrup.Desperate times call for desperate measures. I poured the contents of the jar back into a sauce pan and set it over low heat for FIVE hours.Take that dulce de leche!I then scraped the measly contents back into the jar.This time around it only filled the jar half way, where did it all go?After all of my efforts, I have a ridiculous number of cookies and only enough dulce de leche to sandwich a few of them.Once again, although the dulce de leche thickened up a little bit, I didn’t let it cool completely so it still wasn’t as thick as I would have liked.At this point my patience had completely run out so I spooned the dulce de leche over my cookies and tried to ignore the fact that it immediately dribbled out the side.

If I had of listened to Marce, I wouldn’t have this problem.But I’m stubborn and I didn’t listen to Marce.I’m glad I made the alfajores though, I love trying new things.I don’t think I’ll be making dulce de leche again anytime soon, but it was worth a shot.Thanks for the recipes Marce!If anyone else is feeling adventurous you can see the recipe for alfajores here, and dulce de leche here.

** Edited to add: The alfajores really are delicious! The ones I ate with my dulce de leche were amazing. I just wasn't able to produce enough of it!

29 comments:

Brilynn, dulce de leche is one of my favourite things in the wide world of food. I think these cookies look fantastic, though I'm sorry to hear your dulce de leche making didn't go a little smoother. Are you still looking for people to assign you recipes?

Like danielle, my dulche de leche experience is limited to sweetened condensed milk. But it is gooooood. Basically, you cover a can of sweetened condensed milk with water (in a pot of course), bring to a boil and simmer for 3 hours. Allow to coll, open and enjoy!

oh, I´m so sad it didn´t turn out well :( but now I understand why it´s so dark in those pictures, that dulce de leche cooked for 7 and a half hours! hahahaYeah, for some reason, the homemade variety of dulce de leche is a bit syrupish (I think they add glucose for thickness in the industrial variety), but it still tastes great. You should buy it when you get the chance so you get the whole flavor with none of the mess.By the way, the cookies do have tons of cornstarch because that´s what they are all about, Maizena is a brand name for cornstarch. I do love their taste though because the lemon zest gives them a very nice flavor and they are all crumbly. For the leftover cookies, choose a very good jam, or some nutella, or buy some dulce de leche if you don´t hate it by now lolAnyways, sorry you didn´t get to read my comment about not using the homemade variety for the alfajores. I promise to make it up to you if I ever travel to Canada, I´ll come armed with a big pot of dulce de leche just for you :)

They look cute in a blood bath kind of way (with the dripping and all) but well done for trying to make the dulce from scratch. I'd recommend the Evaporated Milk method, much cleaner, simpler and it tastes really good!

Hehe I hope the taste was worth it!I'll try to come up with something funky for you to make, though right now I'd be happy if someone would make (and deliver) a black forest cake for tomorrow.Those cookies look huge!

Hi Bri - sorry to hear that the dulce de leche didn't go as quite as planned - I've never attempted it before, so I honestly have no idea of how simple/complicated it is supposed to be. Regardless, these treats look awesome!

I feel quite worn out now after reading about your dulce de leche. You must be very patient and determined. I think I would have been tempted to run to the nearestsupermarket and buy a jar!!!They do look fabulous though.

Oh man.. even thin dulce de leche smooshed in between those crumbly cookies looks amazing!

I don't think I've ever seen you make tiramisu.. and I'd love to see your spin on it!! How's about it? :D (You can't deny me.. let us not forget the last challenge I gave you and you failed miserably - oh my growling non-canadian-paper-chef-dinner tummy) :P

I adore alfajores but I haven't made them in over 10 years. It's just easier for me to buy them at the Peruvian restaurant in my 'hood. And that's some true dedication on your part - a total of 8 hours for the dulce de leche! Wow.

There's a restaurant in Toronto called "Jumbo Emapandas" that sometimes sells similar cookies. I have no idea if the name of your blog has anything to do with that restaurant, but it always reminds me of it. Your cookies look amazing.

Bri,Making Alfajores & Dulce De Leche is what i grew up doing. I have the recipes for both on my blog Eat Me!. The recipe for alfajores is here and for Dulce De Leche is here. Please don't succumb to the canned condensed milk version. Making it from fresh milk and vanilla bean yields a far superior result. Good Luck!

If you're not comfortable boiling a can of sweetened condensed milk, David Lebovitz has his recipe for Dulce de Leche posted on his blog: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2005/11/#000145Seems somewhat less dangerous to me. I haven't tried it yet, but I plan to make some soon.